©Journal of Sports Science and Medicine (2013) 12, 608-609 http://www.jssm.org
Received: 21 March 2013 / Accepted: 26 March 2013 / Published (online): 01 September 2013
Concentric and Eccentric: Muscle Contraction or Exercise?
Dear Editor-in-Chief
This inclusion considers the use and possible misuse of the terms ‘‘Concentric and Eccentric’’ in three possible contexts: first, the origin of terms; second, different ap- proaches; and third, the possible uses. To the best of our knowledge, twenty-six articles [i.e.(Barstow et al., 2002)]
have been published in Journal of Sports Science and Medicine misusing the term “concentric/eccentric exer- cise” while nine [i.e.(Coombs and Garbutt, 2002)] articles have used the terms correctly. The purpose of this letter is to foster the use of the terminology 'positive/negative work' together with 'concentric/eccentric contraction' to ease references search (i.e., through key words) and com- prehension.
When these terms initially appeared and what do they mean?
The origin of the terms “Concentric and Eccentric”, were related to muscle contraction in basic physiology science.
Back in “1925”, Hill defined two types of muscle contrac- tions (Hill, 1925): isometric (muscle length does not change during contraction) and isotonic. In this latter contraction, tension remains unchanged while the mus- cle's length changes. There are two types of isotonic con- tractions: (a) concentric and (b) eccentric (Hill, 1925). In a concentric contraction, the muscle tension rises to meet the resistance, then remains stable as the muscle shortens.
During eccentric contraction, the muscle lengthens as the resistance being greater than the force the muscle is pro- ducing.
Which areas do the terms concentric/eccentric cover?
In the following years these terms “Concentric and Eccen- tric” were much used in scientific manuscripts in different areas: physiology, biomechanics, and neuromechanic. On PubMed a search concerning the years (1975 to 2012 yrs included), found n = 190087 articles using the words
‘’muscle contraction’’ vs. n= 2302/1582 articles with
‘’eccentric/concentric exercises’’. Several authors have misused the term “concentric/eccentric work or exercise”
for an exercise with displacement of the body upwards to overcome gravity (positive work) or landing (negative work). Whereas the terms “Eccentric/Concentric” are linked to a muscular behavior, we believe that this cannot be used in all contexts.
Is it judicious to use (only) Eccentric/concentric for exercises?
From the point of view of physics, during the positive (rising/accelerating) or negative work (lowering/deceler- ating) (Asmussen 1953) some muscles are in eccentric mode. For instance, during concentric elbow flexion, the biceps brachii contracts concentrically, whereas the an-
tagonist muscle, the triceps brachii, contracts mildly eccentrically – to allow movement precision. Differently, during resisting at the leg-press machine, the quadriceps contracts eccentrically, whereas the biceps femoris con- tracts mildly concentrically – to allow movement preci- sion. In both cases, a necessary dynamical description of the exercise – e.g. ‘there is positive/negative work’ – is missing. About the first example, it should be underlined the development of positive work, while the second ex- ample is featured by negative work.
Further, the use of these terms in both exercise and muscle contraction has created confusion (Faulkner, 2003). Considering the needs to clarify this question we propose that ‘’positive or negative work’’ (Bosco et al., 1982) terms are more appropriate for describing some exercise while in another context would be more correct to use ‘’flexion – extension’’ or ‘’adduction – abduction’’
or “traction or pushed per multi-joint exercise” for in- stance (Zatsiorsky and Prilutsky, 2012).
The correct use of terms "Eccentric and concentric"
can be valuable for understanding results in a journal article and deciding whether the authors’ conclusions are justified by the data. To avoid confusion, words such as positive (concentric) or negative (eccentric) exercise are preferable. They indicate the importance of the outcome and hence what was probably intended. We believe Sports Science still presents some confusion for some other concepts and we invite all our colleagues to discuss them in letters to the editors as we did in this short letter.
Johnny Padulo 1,2 , Guillaume Laffaye 3 and Karim Chamari 2,4
1 Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of “Tor Vergata” Rome, Italy; 2 Tunisian Research Laboratory
"Sports Performance Optimization" National Center of Medicine and Science in Sport, Tunisia; 3 UR CIAMS – Motor Control and Perception Group, Sport Sciences Department, Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France; 4 ISSEP Ksar-Said, Manouba University Laboratory ''Sport Per- formance Optimization'' National Center of Medicine and Science in Sport, Tunisia
Acknowledgements
We are grateful for the advice given by Professor Luca Paolo Ardigò.
References
Asmussen, E. (1953) Positive and negative muscular work. Acta Physi- ologica Scandinavica 28, 364-382.
Barstow, I.K., Bishop, M.D. and Kaminski, T.W. (2002) Is enhanced- eccentric resistance training superior to traditional training for increasing elbow flexor strength? Journal of Sports Science and Medicine 2, 62-69.
Bosco, C., Viitasalo, J.T., Komi, P.V. and Luhtanen, P. (1982) Com- bined effect of elastic energy and myoelectrical potentiation during stretch-shortening cycle exercise. Acta Physiologica Scandinavica 114, 557-565.
Letter to editor
Concentric and eccentric 609
Coombs, R. and Garbutt, G. (2002) Developments in the use of the hamstring/quadriceps ratio for the assessment of muscle bal- ance. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine 1, 56-62.
Faulkner, J.A. (2003) Terminology for contractions of muscles during shortening, while isometric, and during lengthening. Journal of Applied Physiology 95, 455-459.
Hill, A.V. (1925) Length of muscle, and the heat and tension developed in an isometric contraction. Journal of Physiology 60, 237-263.
Zatsiorsky, V.M. and Prilutsky, B.I. (2012) Biomechanics of Skeletal Muscles. Kinetics of Human Motion Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Johnny Padulo
Human Performance and Training Lab “Carmelo Bosco” - Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of “Tor Vergata”
Via Columbia s.n.c., 00133 Rome E-mail: sportcinetic@gmail.com
